We study the effects of digital photo sharing on social connectedness of people with special needs. We target people dealing with a transition in life that forced them to live away from their family and friends. Our study included four people with spinal-cord injury staying in a rehabilitation centre and eight elderly people staying in a nursing home. Each participant was provided with a web-enabled digital photo frame and their family
members were provided with a camera phone. The results of our study show positive effects. For rehabilitants photo sharing simplified the way they could reconnect to their family. For the elderly people, photo sharing served as ‘food for talk’.